Beneficial insects, particularly the honeybee are susceptible to infestation and damage caused by parasitic mites. Recently, a plague of parasitic mites has significantly decreased the honeybee population. Honeybees are important for crop pollination and aid in fruit formation and size and enhance crop yield. Known measures of control of the parasitic mite populations are few and unpredictable.
Tebufenpyrad and the insecticidal and acaricidal use thereof is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,668. However, the selective application of tebufenpyrad to beneficial insects is undisclosed.
Therefore, new methods for the selective control of parasitic mites on beneficial insects and for the protection of said insects from infestation and damage caused by parasitic mites with little or no concommitant harm to the beneficial host insect are needed.